<span>This quote comes from the Novel "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is located in chapter 20. It is stated by the character Arthur Dimmesdale who is trying to convey that if a person takes on a different persona in public society than the one they naturally present when alone, then they risk becoming confused as to whom they truly are.</span>
Baldwin talks of a "disease" which afflicts black Americans and can wreck race relations and creating a "rage in the blood" so he is using the "disease" as a metaphor for probably the rage that black Americans have for experiencing the inequalities of life in the US especially in the 1960's when the civil rights movement was so strong and segregation was so strongly practiced in the South still.
I’m not 100% sure what you’re trying to say here, but I believe the answer is d.
Because either he was to scared or feared idk i never read the book or story